I've seen the video of the gay man being "delivered" in church. Some find it funny. I think it's sad. And I don't blame him, because it's not his fault. It's the delusion, deception and power of the church (man). Many gay men have tried to pray the gay away, just not publicly.

When I moved to New York City in 1987, I was an 18-year-old closeted man unsure of what life had in store. A friend of my mother's back in Texas said she knew people who ran a church in the city, and this Southern Baptist boy was looking for something that reminded him of home and was eager to join them.

Exodus International and similar organizations may not be performing frontal lobotomies to try to alter one's sexual orientation, but the psychological damage that has been inflicted on countless people is indisputable.

We told our son that he had to choose between Jesus and his sexuality. Choosing God, practically, meant living a lifetime condemned to being alone. So, just before his 18th birthday, Ryan, depressed, suicidal and disillusioned, made a new choice.

Exodus International leader Alan Chambers apologized recently for the harm done to LGBT people by the so-called "ex-gay" movement. In that moment, the face that came to mind for me was the bruised, burned and emaciated face of 15-year-old Raymond Buys.

I heard you say that you regret the way in which Exodus communicated its message. And I definitely heard you repeatedly say that it's high time for the church to start welcoming gay people. But I never heard you say that it's OK for people to be gay.

There are not enough words in the world to undo the harm done to LGBT people who have been damaged, devalued and, in far too many cases, destroyed by the toxic narrative that their sexual orientation was an illness to be cured.

In an odd court decision released Monday, federal judge William Shubb temporarily blocked California from enforcing S.B. 1172, a groundbreaking law that prohibits anti-gay therapists from trying to turn gay minors straight. It seems Shubb is a bit confused about the First Amendment.

In June I penned a column that predicted that so-called "ex-gay" programs would crumble from internal rot. In the months since, the decline of these "pray away the gay" organizations has only accelerated.